1 . The air is thin and we have to rest several times on the short hike from camp. To our left, snow-covered mountains disappear into clouds that seem almost close enough to touch. On the grassland in front of us, we can just make out a herd of graceful animals. This is why we’re here — to observe Tibetan antelopes.
Tibetan antelopes live on the plains of Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai. Watching them move slowly across the green grass. I’m struck by their beauty. I’m also reminded of the danger they are in. They are being hunted, illegally, for their valuable fur.
My guide is Zhaxi, a villager from Changtang. He works at the Changtang National Nature Rcserve. It covers an arca of about 120,000 square miles. The reserve is a shelter for the animals and plants of northwestern Tibet. To Zhaxi, protecting the wildlife is a way of life. “We’re not trying to save the animals,” he says. “Actually, we’re trying to save ourselves.”
The 1980s and 1990s were bad times for the Tibetan antelope. The population dropped by more than 50 percent. Hunters were shooting antelopes to make money. Their habitats were becoming smaller as new roads and railways were built.
In order to save this species from extinction, the Chinese government placed it under national protection. Zhaxi and other volunteers watched over the antelopes day and night to keep them safe from attacks. Bridges and gates were added to let the antelopes move easily and keep them safe from cars and trains.
The measures were effective. The antelope population has recovered and in June 2015, the Tibetan antelope was removed from the endangered species list. The government, however, does not intend to stop the protection programmes, since the threats to the Tibetan antelope have not yet disappeared.
In the evening, I drink a cup of tea and watch the stars. I think about the antelopes and what Zhaxi told me. Much is being done to protect wildlife, but if we really want to save the planet, we must change our way of life. Only when we learn to exist in harmony with nature can we stop being a threat to wildlife and to our planet.
1. Why did the writer visit Tibet?| A．To watch the Tibetan antelopes. | B．To go on a short hike from camp. |
| C．To see the snow-covered mountains. | D．To visit their friend Zhaxi in Changtang. |
| A．Their habitats disappeared. | B．They were attacked by other animals. |
| C．They were shot by hunters for money. | D．Their population dropped by less than 50 percent. |
| A．It was built by volunteers and villagers. |
| B．Its protection programmes have been stopped. |
| C．It was founded to protect the wildlife that live there. |
| D．Its antelopes are on the list of endangered species now. |
| A．The importance of a good lifestyle. |
| B．Protecting wildlife is protecting ourselves. |
| C．Changtang is the best place to observe Tibetan antelopes. |
| D．More volunteers are needed to keep the antelopes from attacks. |
It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers
Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned
Then the people realized
Now, the people are still poor.
3 . In the wild, it all depends on you with your survival knowledge and equipment to life.
You’d better take a compass. It is not heavy. It is entitled to a place in your equipment. The use of the compass is the most effective. Some people may say GPS is very popular now.
Besides that, I will talk about the role of fire. Fire plays an important role not only in cooking food, but also in helping us resist the cold.
No matter how high-end your outdoor clothing is, you still need to take a raincoat. Choosing a suitable raincoat is very important. The separation kind of raincoat is more convenient. The raincoat doesn’t just protect you from the rain.
If the survival of the wild is compared to a building, then the strong will is the foundation, the survival knowledge is the wall, the proper training is the roof, the equipment is just to make you live in more comfortable decoration.
| A．First, one better option is to take GPS. |
| B．The survival scarf in the wild is our essential survival tool. |
| C．Good equipment can let you have a more comfortable experience. |
| D．Bicycle raincoat can cover your bag but you can’t stretch out your hand. |
| E．However, the more complex things are, the more likely they are to go wrong. |
| F．In order to let you enjoy better treatment in the wild, you have to take a lighter. |
| G．It can also be used as tents and waterproof mats to keep you warm and get water for you. |
4 . Wang Yaping’s dream of becoming an astronaut was inspired by Yang Liwei’s 2003 space flight, which was China’s first manned space mission.
Born in a small village in Yantai, Shandong Province in 1980, Wang had been an enthusiastic long-distance runner since primary school, and competed in local sports meetings.
In 1997, Wang, a high school student, was encouraged to register for the pilot recruitment program by her classmates because she was good at sports and didn’t wear glasses. The 17-year-old had been considering applying to a teaching college, as her parents suggested.
Given her strong build and ability to stay calm under pressure, Wang passed all tests as well as physical examinations and became a female pilot in China. After four years of systemic education and tough training, Wang eventually learned to fly four different types of aircraft before graduation.
During her service as a military pilot, she accumulated 1,567 hours of flight time and was involved in major tasks such as the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake relief effort and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
In May 2010, Wang became a member of China’s first batch of female astronauts. The joy of being selected did not last long as the hard training quickly sank in.
In the first year, Wang could not get the top level in the high-G training, during which she had to endure eight times the force of gravity in a spinning centrifuge. The training imitates the environment when the spacecraft takes off, enters orbit and returns. Wang improved her performance by doing extra core-strength exercises every day to strengthen her back and abdominal muscles. She got the top level at the end of 2011. Wang realized her space dream in 2013 as part of the Shenzhou-10 mission.
Over the past two years, Wang has logged in over 6,000 hours of strict training. The most tiring exercise was the seven-hour underwater training session during which she had to wear a special suit that weighed over 100 kilograms to simulate extravehicular activities in a weightless environment.
Wang has become the first female taikonaut to work in China’s Tiangong space station as well as the first Chinese woman to perform a spacewalk.
1. Why did Wang want to become an astronaut?| A．Because she was able to stay calm under pressure. |
| B．Because she was good at sports and didn’t wear glasses. |
| C．Because she was influenced by China’s first manned space flight. |
| D．Because she was advised to register for the pilot program by her parents. |
| A．Wang won a long-distance runner championship |
| B．Wang was the first Chinese female to take a spacewalk |
| C．Wang went to a teaching college encouraged by her classmates |
| D．Wang thought the seven-hour underwater training session was easy |
| A．She learned to fly four different types of aircraft. |
| B．She participated in the Shenzhou-10 mission of China. |
| C．She received four years of systemic education in university. |
| D．She got involved in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake relief effort. |
| A．Calm and friendly. | B．Warm-hearted and creative. |
| C．Modest and honest. | D．Hardworking and determined. |
People often wonder about the reasons behind the urban migration of animals. Most of us would assume that urban development and climate change are responsible for pushing the animals out of their
While most spiders hunt alone, there are a few hundred species of social spiders that live in colonies. A.studiosus is one of them. Up to 50 individuals gather together to spin large collective webs, which catch larger prey than each spider could trap on its own.
All the colony members look the same, but they don’t all behave in the same way. The females can be aggressive or docile (温驯的). It’s surprisingly easy to realize their personalities—just put two of them in a small box overnight and check on them the next morning. If they’re both docile, they will have built a joint web in one corner of the box. If one of them is aggressive, the pair will be at opposite corners.
Colin Wright from the University of Pittsburgh has now found that these personality types do different jobs within the web, creating a natural division of labor. They’re a little like ants, where small workers clean and look for food, and big soldiers guard and defend. But unlike these insects, the social spiders don’t have castes (社会阶层) with different builds. Instead, their roles are defined by their personalities.
When Wright’s team first started studying A.studiosus, they couldn’t work out what the docile spiders did. They didn’t seem to repair webs, keep enemies away, or catch prey. But when the researchers checked the fates of colonies in the wild, they found that those with a mix of docile and aggressive members were more likely to survive than those with just a single type. The docile members were clearly doing something important.
It turns out that they act as the colony’s babysitters. They spend most of their time standing watching over the eggs, or directly feeding the youngsters by regurgitating (反刍) food—just like a mother bird might. Meanwhile, the aggressive spiders generally avoid these tasks; instead, they spend most of their time building the web, catching prey, and defending their colonies. Compared to the docile spiders, the aggressive ones are better at those tasks, because the docile females rarely respond to enemies—and when they do respond, they do so slowly.
For now, it’s not clear why the spiders naturally fall into their respective careers, or even what drives their different personalities in the first place. The team are now trying to answer these questions. In the meantime, Wright suggests that biologists should pay more attention to personality types, when trying to understand how animal societies work.
1. According to the passage, what are the two personality types of female A.studiosus?2. What are the aggressive female spiders mainly responsible for?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
In an A.studiosus colony, the division of labor is based on the different builds of the spiders.
4. Do you think personality traits influence human career choices? Why or why not? (In about 40 words)
A lot of my time is spent doing wildlife surveys, which means trying to figure out how many animals or fish are in a certain area. This is
8 . Will Gladstone remembers first learning about the blue-footed booby in his fifth grade science class. They are a symbol of the Galapagos Islands.
The blue-footed booby population in the Galapagos has fallen to a third of its size since the1960s. This fact stayed with Will, who grew up bird-watching with his dad around their hometown. Will had never been to the Galapagos, nor seen a blue-footed booby in person, but decided he wanted to help protect them.
A few days later, he came up with a plan: He could sell blue socks, the same color as the bird's feet, to raise money for protection efforts. Will set up his online site The Blue Feet Foundation in March 2016. The website was up for three months before Will and his younger brother Matthew sold their first pair of socks. “We reached out to a lot of people and they wouldn't take us seriously...because we were just kids.”
But being “just kids” comes with its own strengths. They made an Instagram account for the foundation and started direct-messaging stars. Will says one of their biggest supporters is his longtime favorite hockey player, Kevan Miller. They have sold about 10,000 pairs of socks to customers in 46 countries, raising about $90, 000 after costs. All profits go to the Galapagos Conservancy and the Charles Darwin Foundation, two research and protection organizations based in the Galapagos Islands.
Will's and Matthew's efforts are already having a beneficial effect. Their money was used for a blue-footed booby population survey in 2017 by a team of 10 researchers. The researchers report that they did see many more baby birds than in their previous study in 2012.
Three years after forming the foundation, Will got to visit the Galapagos on a week-long school trip. And Will finally got to see a blue-footed booby in person. “I was crazily looking around and when l saw one, it was really cool,” Will said.
The brothers have won several awards for their work. But they each say the biggest award they've got is perseverance.
1. What inspired Will to protect the blue-footed booby?| A．The drop of the birds' number. | B．His trip to Galapagos Islands. |
| C．His experience of bird-watching. | D．The symbolic meaning of the bird. |
| A．They started The Blue Feet Foundation. |
| B．They asked protection organizations for help. |
| C．They reached out to their classmates and other kids. |
| D．They opened an account and contacted famous people. |
| A．take care of more baby birds | B．do scientific research on the birds |
| C．attract people to watch the birds | D．award people who protect the birds |
| A．Humorous. | B．Generous. | C．Determined. | D．Creative. |
In March 2018, a couple opened the first Zero Green in Bristol,
10 . Watching wildlife safely is the responsibility of all park visitors. When you visit some national parks, you are entering animals' habitat.
Consequences of Physical Contact with People
Some animals, from bison to birds. may be rejected by their parents if they have contact with humans.
Fatal Diseases from People and Pets
Our domestic pets can also pose real dangers to the wildlife within parks. Both pets and people may have diseases that they can give to wildlife. Sadly, there are many examples of wildlife in parks dying from diseases given to them by pets and humans. For example, heartworm from cats can kill wildlife such as foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions. Black-footed ferrets die from the flu if humans are sick and get too close.
Dangers of Eating Human Food and/or Trash (垃圾)
When visitors intentionally or unintentionally feed wildlife, it has negative effects on the wildlife. Some of the dangers to wildlife include shorter lives. The best way for wildlife to have a healthy diet and live healthy lives is to search for food as they would naturally. Relying on human food or trash left out puts wildlife at risk.
It's important to understand how your actions may affect the wildlife in parks. When you respect wildlife, you help protect park animals and yourself.
| A．These animals must be removed. |
| B．You need to behave like a polite guest. |
| C．Wolves can be infected by virus from dogs. |
| D．So it's best to resist the urge to pet and hold them. |
| E．Actually, some of them may behave in a strange way. |
| F．Observing wildlife in their native habitat can be an educational and fun experience. |
| G．Learning to eat human food can also change the way that wildlife interact with people. |
